Indian-origin woman to help build world`s fastest car

Johannesburg: A 29-year-old Indian-origin woman from South Africa is set to join the team of specialist engineers building the world`s fastest car in the UK.

Beverly Singh, a mechanical engineer from Port Elizabeth, will help design the Bloodhound supersonic car, currently being built by a team of about 30 engineers in a high-tech centre near Bristol.

The rocket-powered car will come to South Africa in 2015 for a series of test runs (over several months) to break the sound barrier and current land speed record of 1228 km/h.

In 2016, it will attempt to set a record 30 per cent faster than that: 1609 km/h.

Singh, who won the Bloodhound Chevening Scholarship for her masters in mechanical engineering at the University of West of England, will join the team next month, working alongside engineers from companies such as Boeing and Rolls-Royce, who are assembling the car, `Times Live` reported.

"The engineers working on the Bloodhound are the best in the world in their fields. I always wanted to do something like this," said Singh.

Singh has left her job as a process engineer in Port Elizabeth and will fly to Bristol in a few weeks.

She says she will focus on her full-time degree studies but will take time out to be with the team building the car.

"I am so excited. It`s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said.

However, Singh said she had no idea what she would be working on in the Bloodhound project. She hopes she will be able to join the team when the car is shipped to South Africa for testing.

The test runs and the record attempts will take place at Hakskeenpan in the Northern Cape Province.